Why is the live-action Invincible movie taking so long?

Invincible creator Robert Kirkman explains why the live-action movie is taking so long, adding that it has to “stand on its own.”

A live-action adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible was announced four years before the animated series even premiered on Prime Video, and still, there’s been little movement on the movie. Is it even still happening? According to Kirkman, apparently so. They’re just taking their time with it.

“It’s still in development,” Kirkman said at San Diego Comic-Con (via The Direct). “We’re still working with Universal. You know, the show is going so well. I think the movie absolutely has to be perfect. And so it’s taking a lot of time, like getting the pieces aligned and getting everything to work so that we can come out and make it as good as it can possibly be. So it’s been in development for a long time, and it’s probably going to be in development for a while longer.“

Kirkman is aware that the Invincible movie “has to provide a different experience” from the animated series. “It has to still be true to Invincible in some interesting ways,” he said. “But it has to be its own thing. It has to stand on its own. And so that’s something we’re spending a lot of time crafting. But I think when it finally happens, it’s gonna be really cool.” The process of figuring that out is why the development process is taking so long. Does the movie tell the same story or move in a different direction? While the animated series can include everything from the comic and more, the movie will have to condense the story, which is its own challenge. Kirkman then joked that the development for the movie could take so long that “Timothée Chalamet can play Omni-Man.“

The second season of the animated Invincible series wrapped up earlier this year and has already been renewed for a third and fourth season. The series follows Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), the son of an extraterrestrial superhero known as Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). Mark later inherits his father’s abilities, including great strength, flight, speed, and some invulnerability, and becomes the superhero known as Invincible. He also discovers that his father’s race, the Viltrumites, doesn’t exactly have peaceful intentions toward Earth. In addition to Steven Yeun and J.K. Simmons, Invincible features the voices of Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Mae Whitman, and more. As for how many seasons the show could last, Kirkman has previously put the number in the seven-to-eight range. Maybe the movie won’t arrive until after the series concludes.